This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for providing identification. This invention has particular but not exclusive application to a method of and apparatus for identifying persons and unique articles which retain or are intended to retain a lifelong distinctive identity such as computers, computer records, computer software, network hardware including RF local and wide area network access equipment, databases, database records, categorized watch lists for individuals, portable computer storage devices, audit archival equipment, passports, documents of identity, documents of registration, operator license documents, paintings and other objects of art. Such individual persons, equipment, records and articles are hereinafter collectively referred to as “an individual or individuals or entities”. In other aspects of the invention an “individual or individuals” may be used for identifying freightable articles such as shipping containers, the contents of shipping containers, boxes for shipping, airplanes, ships, motor vehicles and their respective individual components or the like.
All National Governments via their respective Departments issue Identity Documents such as but not limited to National Identity Document (paper &/or card), Passports (of various International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] specified types &/or sizes), Driver License (paper &/or card), Operator License (paper &/or card), Transport Worker Identity (paper &/or card), Departmental Officers Identity (paper &/or card), Departmental Visitor Identity (paper &/or card), Authorization Document (paper &/or card) & Vehicle/Truck/Aircraft/ship etc Registration Identity Documents (paper &/or card), as well as other National Asset Identity Document concerning their respective National interests including National Critical Infrastructure.
In addition, the several commercial organizations/industries involved in Security, Travel (domestic &/or International), Air freight, Ship Cargo etc. also issue Identity Documents to their employees, Club Membership Document (paper &/or card), and, in addition, some also issue Checked Baggage, Air Cargo Identification Documentation (for both the Container & its Contents) as well as Sea/Road Shipping Containers.
Positive identification of individuals is important for preventing unauthorized access to or passage from selected locations or facilities such as banks, accounts, etc. and restricted areas such as secure buildings, medical diagnostic and treatment areas, airport terminals and all associated restricted areas, whether on or off site of the respective airport or the like. Positive identification of individuals is particularly important for making Government level decisions concerning travelers' access to countries, especially international travelers. Individuals that assume the Identity of or obtain Official Departmental Identity documentation of another Individual (identity theft) but having descriptive details referring to themselves (being not containers, motor vehicles or the like, can be especially troubling but can be intercepted through the use of biometric data.
International travelers are often subjected to disruptive and excessive delays upon arrival at and/or departure from airport terminals as officials attempt to establish the bona fides of each traveler by personally interrogating each traveler and comparing the person being interrogated with the available identification indicia such as passports, memory lists and computer files and the like, with the aim of identifying any traveler who is unauthorized to enter the country or whose details are on lists of restricted individuals. This entry check is also utilized to record details of movement of travelling individuals to and from each country visited.
The presently available methods of positive identification of an individual typically include passports, knowledge of restricted or secured information such as a password, possession of a restricted article such as a pass key, or physical appearance of the individual to which an Identity Document refers. If the Identity Document is in an electronic medium, malefactors might use a technique generally known as “data stripping” to duplicate the electronic signature of the original document or might replace the details of the lawful holder with details relating to the impostor.
Security based upon knowledge of restricted information or possession of a restricted article may be compromised without discovery since the information may be obtained from its rightful owner. Consequently such information does not provide a satisfactory method for positive identification of an individual in all cases, particularly where such identification has to be made quickly.
Methodologies relying on physical appearance, commonly referred to as biometric techniques such as fingerprint analysis, thermograms, opthalmic scans and DNA analysis are considered less vulnerable to mistaken identity and therefore are attractive to authorities but to date have been difficult to utilize successfully. Mostly such methodologies require a vast databank containing the particular biometric data for each individual, which may be difficult and/or slow to locate and access.
A recent development in “imposter detection” is an extended requirement by the United States Government, which it has imposed on other National Governments that cooperate with the US in what is known as the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which requires that each Nation, in order to obtain or maintain a VWP status, must develop and begin the issue to their respective eligible passport holders, a tamper resistant, machine-readable travel document (MRTD) that is embedded with contactless Integrated Circuit (IC) Chips.
One known method of utilizing biometric techniques for identification of an individual for the purpose of restricting entry to an area to authorized persons only, includes providing each of the authorized individuals with a card containing biometrics identifiers. Further any such MRTD issued that contains such biometrics identifiers must comply with the standards laid down and endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). These are basic standards that provide for a portable database in Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) form. This is deficient in the absence of access to the original Issuing Countries' Database. Further, such a database must be maintained in such a way as to prevent substitutions or multiple enrollments (across one or more additional Countries).
Several National Governments accordingly will need to issue biometric passports to their citizens in the near future. Most, if not all, biometric passports will, at a basic level, be ICAO compliant, in that they will have a contactless chip in the MRTD regardless of its format as a paper or a card type travel document. However, in addition to defeating internal corruption, organized crime or terrorist activity, each MRTD will additionally need to store a unique description in the form of biographic and biometric information about the passport holder that can perform an additional database file locator function.
A developed national or international interoperable biometric based identification system for individuals and unique articles that are intended to maintain a life long identity, will be referred to hereinafter as the “System”. The System must be instantly accessible across any individual Nation and extend to any other authorized Nation. This instant accessibility extends to all authorized individuals. The status of such authorized individuals may change due to time of day, day or month based upon roster duty. Such individuals may also face immediate withdrawal of access to either all or particular areas based upon changes in assignment.
Individuals that are first both verified and authenticated may be allowed access to and control of (if applicable) the System's full multi-media capacity. Such verification and authentication occurs in a fully encrypted, reverse accountable operating system. Each piece of individual hardware that can access or input data to the System will be biometrically identified and irrevocably linked to an access code and encryption key that may be a biometrically based encryption key for all such equipment components and System operators, each with and individual encryption key and/or access code as well as a session key, in order to provide an irrevocable biometric audit trail of all system operations, system modules, other transmission equipment and transactions.
This will improve efficiency in commerce and trade by pro-actively detecting impostors to prevent terrorist and organized criminal activity The present invention will simultaneously and pro-actively protect the privacy of individuals by having the ability to morph their identity into several aliases so that national and international data warehoused can be prevented from obtaining every detail about them, their lifestyle habits, addresses including GPS location, and any images of the individual or their assets. This would foreclose, for example, linking GPS location to satellite imagery later providing such information to unknown third persons without the individual's knowledge or informed consent.